The Wild Geese?

Hirano packs Hellsing full of historical tidbits, military history, literature, pop-culture & film references. So where did Hirano possibly get inspiration for Pip's impressive group of mercenary military experts?

The Wild Geese was a 1978 film starring Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Richard Burton and other fab British actors. The premise? A group of mercenaries are recruited by a British banker to travel to Africa and save Julius Limbani, an imprisoned African leader, from resident baddies. By the way... Limbani has major political clout in Africa... and some multi-million dollar copper mine consessions [hmm, might be the banker's motivation?] are up for grabs. Plot twists ensue, and the righteous WG fight for their lives.

Besides being a "politically incorrect fest" [remember the time period, people], it's still an action film. They even hired Colonel "Mad Mike" Hoare, the former paratrooper-turned-merc as the military and technical advisor. This film might be "loosely based" on his exploits as a merc in the Congo and South Africa during the 1960s-70s. Do a "Google" on Hoare for further info.

The Wild Geese was also a novel by Daniel Carney.

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